


crazy (for you)

by lusterrdust



Category: Archie Comics, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Mental Institutions, Oneshot, References to Drugs, Teen Angst, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 11:14:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11576931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lusterrdust/pseuds/lusterrdust
Summary: "But when she walks in one day, blue eyes and blue sweats, he can only think of the blonde character who'd fallen down a rabbit hole and ended up in a world she wasn't supposed to." [bughead, au]





	crazy (for you)

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd 
> 
> Just an idea I wrote out on my phone. Sorry if there's errors. Thanks you guys for being so wonderfully patient and kind with me xoxo

 

 

> ▱◯♕
> 
> “ _Trippin' out, Spinnin' around_  
>  _I'm underground, I fell down_  
>  _Yeah, I fell down"_  
>  _—Alice, Avril Lavigne_
> 
> ◯

She's not crazy.

She just has her dead sister following her around.

He doesn't have a temper or dependency problem.

He's just muddled his brain a little too much with the drugs he was supposed to be selling.

Jughead hears the whispers, but takes them with a grain of salt. Here at Quiet Mercy's Treatment Center for Troubled Youths, he's just another name on a log filled with nutters.

But when she walks in one day, blue eyes and blue sweats, he can only think of the blonde character who'd fallen down a rabbit hole and ended up in a world she wasn't supposed to.

She's skittish and reclusive. She's like a diamond integrated with a pile of coal.

After a while, Jughead becomes accustomed to her presence. He sits across from one of the girls one day (Cindy, he thinks?), playing Texas Hold'em, except not really, because she instead chooses to insistently organize the deck with intense focus.

That's when he sees her in the far corner of the dayroom floor. She's alone, but she's talking as if there's someone beside her. He stares for a little too long, right up until she looks up and catches his gaze. She then blushes prettily and hisses something to the empty seat beside her.

She's very easy on the eyes, but he doesn't want to come off creepy, so he averts his gaze.

Jughead counts the cigarette burns that run up and down his arms until the nurse announces its time for pill call.

... ... ...

She's quiet during "circle" talk time. Counselor Mindy tries to encourage her to open up, but all Jughead learns is that her name is Betty.

Funny, she reminds him more of an Alice.

Later, however, when he walks out to the gardens, he spots her bent over a patch of hydrangeas. When they talk, he thinks he was wrong before. Betty, her name, it suits her well. It's an old fashioned sort of name, classic and sweet.

"My parents think I'm crazy." She tells him.

"My would think the same of me if they were around." He responds idly.

"I'm not crazy." She says in a firmer tone.

He's sure that's not entirely true, but he only shrugs. "I wouldn't recommend telling your doctor that."

... ... ...

A week passes, and Jughead somehow finds himself anticipating the hours he and Betty can talk.

They sit out by the hydrangeas, and somehow, in all the time he's been here, it's... pleasant.

"Polly likes them." She explains to the question he doesn't ask, fingering a petal. He doesn't know who Polly is, but Betty insists she's there, so he nods and says Polly has good taste in flowers.

It's the day after they sit in the gardens that Jughead has an "episode", and he learns Polly is Betty's dead sister.

Nurse Perez finds his stash of meds taped inside a tiny cup in the far corner of his nightstand. He can only remember growling in anger at the feel of their hands holding him down as they called for assistance.

He knew assistance meant he wouldn't be able to see Betty, so he struggled. Then, a pinch to his hip and only the soft pull of darkness followed.

When he wakes up hours later, Betty's in his room, her blonde hair like spun silk in the glow of the moonlight. The shadow of the bars across his window fall over her face, and he thinks she's the saddest beauty he's ever seen.

"Why do you fight with them?" She asks, unapologetically curling herself onto his bed and making his heart race at her touch.

"How did you get in here?" He questions, dodging her own.

Betty merely cocks her head and shrugs. "I swiped Mindy's ID card."

"Oh."

"I missed you today." Betty tells him, tracing her fingers over the scars on his arm. She lines them up and glides her finger over the pearl white lines on her own wrists. "Polly's my sister. She...she used my dad's gun."

"Oh." He repeats, dumbfounded.

Without warning, Betty slides up and presses her lips against his own only to pull away before he has a chance to properly taste the flavor of her chapstick.

"I'm not crazy." She says with a voice that a little too breathless.

Jughead shrugs lightly and moves his hand up to brush the messy w aves behind her ear. "Who cares if you are or not?"

  
... ... ...

Betty starts to open up more during "circle" talk time.

He learns her mother's name is Alice, and for a split second, he wonders if she's the product of the girl who fell down the rabbit hole. When he speaks up himself, mindlessly rambling, he doesn't care that no one but Betty and the counselor are listening.

He takes his pills during pill call and feels content to sit and stare out the window for the afternoon. He thinks it stupid to be punished for taking drugs out on the street by being given a completely new set of them in a facility. 

He doesn't quite see the logic in that.

Betty sneaks to his room later that night and sets a plucked hydrangea on his window sill. They talk until the time comes for nurses do their early morning checks, and there's a lingering hesitancy now for them to be apart.

She places their palms together and lines up their arms so their scars are touching.

"When will you leave from here?" She asks.

"Dunno." Jughead shrugs. "My doctor says if I continue my good behavior I could be out of here before my birthday, but who knows."

Betty bites her lip and looks down, making his eyes linger on the action. "Where will you go?"

"Back home, maybe. Or with my cousin." He tells her, thinking of the Serpents first and then the cousin who'd managed to get out of that situation and make something of himself.

"Do you believe in ghosts, Juggie?"

Her question hangs in the air uneasily, and he stares at her, hoping to understand the inner workings of her mind.

"I believe we can be haunted by the dead." He says, never breaking their locked gaze. He hopes she doesn't take his answer offensively.

"I'm not crazy." Betty whispers, her shoulders slumped forward. Her tone isn't as adamant as it had been months prior.

Jughead twines their fingers together. "If you're crazy, so am I."

She slips away in the shadows before the nurse appears.

... ... ...

Betty reads Moby Dick to him out in the gardens. She says it was Polly's favorite. He doesn't mention the way she says _was_ instead of _is_ , and instead let's the autumn sun rays spread delightfully over his skin.

Today is a bad day. He's irritable. He's twitchy. He's paranoid, and there's a ringing in his head.

He gets in a fight with a taller boy who steals his deck of cards. He doesn't stop ramming his fist into the guy's face, even when hearing a sickly crunch. His vision becomes filled with images of his dad pounding one of the gang member's skull in. There was so much blood.

On the floor, on his hands... just like now. He hears one shout before he's out cold.

Jughead wakes up in what feels like moments later, inside his room, and moves to sit at the window to look into the gardens until the sun sets. He wonders vaguely if his dad gets a view from his prison cell window, or if his mom has a view from wherever she lives now.

Somehow, he doubts they give a second thought about whether or not he has a good view here in the nutter house.

When Betty slips into his room that night, he's taken by surprise when she kisses him with an urgency that knocks him on his back.

She crawls over his legs and straddles his hips. When she pulls away moments later, lips tinted and swollen from their kiss, he can only stare in wonder as her eyes narrow at him.

"Why did you get in a fight today?"

There's disapproval in her tone, and Jughead feels chastised briefly before it's quickly replaced with irritation to her questioning.

"Don't worry about it." He says flatly.

Betty glares and grinds filthily against his already hardened erection, eliciting a hiss from him. His fingers grip her hips tightly as she digs her nails into chest. "Tell me."

"I..." how is he supposed to properly think with her moving against him like this? She rides him through their clothing and stops like a cruel minx when he gives the barest hints of pleasure. Desperate for more, Jughead grits his teeth and narrows his eyes before explaining. "Jonah stole my cards."

Betty halts her movements and Jughead nearly whines. "A deck of cards made you break Jonah's nose?" She asks, reaching for his hands and frowning at the bandages wrapped around them.

"They're _mine_." He counters testily. He doesn't own much in life, and the things he does, he's protective over. Even if they're just a stupid deck and of cards.

Thankfully, Betty seems to understand as her face softens. She kisses his hand gently and then looks up to him through her lashes. She _so_...she's so goddamn perfect, he feels almost guilty for being able to soak in her presence. He feels unworthy.

But he's also selfish, and damn him for throwing propriety out the window when the heat of her eyes sends shockwaves down toward his erection.

Slowly, Betty places his hand on her breast and he releases a shaky breath when realizing she's wearing nothing underneath the thin cotton tank top. Her nipples are pebbled under his touch and he leans forward to tentatively nuzzle the space between them.

He should've known Betty would smell as heavenly as she looks.

She quietly begs him to touch her, and he nearly comes then and there before awkwardly replying they shouldn't do anything with Polly in the room.

Betty tells him Polly is gone. She doesn't elaborate, and he doesn't ask.

Before she leaves later in the early morning, Betty places her palm over his and presses their scars together before kissing the burns on his arm. She tells him she loves him and he feels his eyes flutter closed at the admission before his heart clenches in pure elation.

"Am I crazy, Juggie?" She asks softly, her gaze unmoving from their arms.

Jughead looks at her. _Really_ looks at her. She's honestly the most beautiful person he's ever seen in his young adult life. She's scarred and haunted, but she's smart and funny and a thousand other things.

"For loving me? Yeah." He answers, keeping the rest of his thoughts to himself.

Betty rolls her eyes and pinches his arm. She sighs heavily and looks out toward the window. "My parents think—"

"Fuck what your parent's think, Betts!" Jughead finally snaps. He hates how her parents dictate her thoughts, even when they're not there. He hates that she has so much doubt for herself. He hates that she can't see herself the way he sees her.

Betty snaps her mouth shut and stares wide eyed at him, but he continues, in a softer tone this time. "Do you think you're crazy?"

She looks down and looks contemplative for a moment, as if she's actually thinking it through before answering, "No."

"Then you're not crazy." He says.

Betty bites her lip and he knows she can't think it's this easy.

"She doesn't visit me anymore." She tells him, sounding oddly conflicted on the revelation. "Polly. She's... gone."

"Oh." Jughead grimaces. He's not sure what to say exactly.

When she slips away, he stares at the ceiling until the sun rises and the nurse comes in.

... ... ...

The eve of his eighteenth birthday is bittersweet.

His belongings (a few items of clothes, two books, a deck of cards, and toiletries) are all packed and ready to go. He's no longer obligated to be here. To be force fed pills and cafeteria-esque food.

But it also means no Betty.

At least not until her own birthday, which isn't exactly close. He contemplates staying behind with her, but he thinks it's best if he gets a head start. He wants to find a job and save money for when she's able to be released.

She's been quieter in the last few weeks; heavier bags under her eyes accompanied with slurred speech. He's livid when finding out there's been a switch to her medication.

He argues that the pills aren't helping her. In fact, he swears they're doing more damage than good. But the nurses and doctors don't listen. They don't care. What does he know? He's only a boy, and they're professionals.

Yeah, he scoffs to himself. " _Professionals_ ".

Betty stops coming to see him at night, but today, while she didn't seem completely out of it, he'd asked if she could stop by.

The clock ticks to the point he wants to rip it off the wall, and for short while, he tries to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach when believing she won't come after all.

It's past midnight when she finally arrives. He'd almost drifted off to sleep, but he shoots up from the bed at her presence.

She curls into him with heart wrenching eyes of despair and a trembling lip. She won't tell him to stay. No, Betty is too selfless. She wants him to get out of here.

Thinking of not seeing her everyday though makes him ache in places he didn't know could. It makes him ache deep in his bones and in the untouched, hidden corners of his heart.

Quite suddenly, he speaks. "Come with me."

Betty blinks confusedly at him, pulling away slightly. "Wh—"

"I have a cousin. He'll help, I know he will." Jughead thinks of his cousin Bingo and he knows until he can get the money he's owed from the Serpents, they'll have a place to stay. Then they can go wherever they want— _do_ whatever they want! Get their GED's, move to Washington, _wherever_! It can be just him and Betty.

Her eyes light up in hope at his words and she clutches his shirt tightly. When she speaks, her voice is hoarse, like she can't believe he wants her with him. "Really?"

"Why not?" He grabs the ID card from her pocket and holds it up. "We can go. Just the two of us, right now."

Betty licks her lips and smiles slowly, her eyes studying him intently. "You're crazy."

Her words are spoken with fondness, and he represses the urge to spew some sappy follow up like ' _for you_ ', though it'd be completely accurate. Instead, Jughead just grins crookedly and tangles their fingers together.

"Completely."

When dawn breaks, they'll be far from their beds and the nurses who call for assistance at their absences.

 

 


End file.
